Tag Archives: flood

If not consistent with the Comprehensive Plan, nor with the water and sewer growth plan,
fire and rescue doesn’t want it, and the Planning Commission recommended rejecting it,
what does it take for the Lowndes County Commission to reject a zoning,
in this case for
REZ-2018-17 for
The Settlement North, 5999 Val Del Road?

Only three people were allowed to speak against, of the five whose hands went up.

The developer promised restrictive covenants enforced by nobody but the homeowners.
County-imposed conditions on the Nelson Hill development, also on Val Del, were largely waived by county staff without public hearings.
What promises should we believe?

Will the developer’s demand to ignore the Comprehensive Plan
because of “market conditions, supply and demand” prevail?
Do property values of neighbors not matter?
How about saddling the county school system with houses priced too low
for property taxes on them to cover expenses of sending school buses?
Or is profit for a few all that matters?

On the anniversary of the French Revolution against a corrupt old regime,
the U.S. House of Representatives took a step towards independence from
the clammy grip of the fossil fuel companies.
This has direct implications on Moody AFB.
No more pipelines. Solar power now.

As expected from the previous morning, they appointed
Chairman Bill Slaughter to the
South Georgia Community Service Board, after he got that board to change the time of its meetings to be different from this Commission’s time.

Video.
A Commissioner after the vote appointing Chairman Slaughter
asked what this board did.
Chairman’s answer: mostly behavioral health,
and they used to hold their meetings the same time as the Lowndes meetings,
but they have moved them to Adel at 1PM presumably also on Tuesday.

Video.
For quite a bit more background, see
the LAKE video from the previous morning’s Work Session.
Chairman asked for timeline.
Ashley Tye said federal year starts October 1st, so Valdosta would like to have
and agreement ready to sign before then.
Also they could come back at a later time, but could lose out on the federal
funding match.

Chairman asked for timeline to get agreement ready by then.
Tye said agreement with USGS would be with Valdosta,
and he would check back with them for a more firm date,
and would probably be best to decide at next Lowndes County Commission meeting.

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall asked confirmation that waiting until the
next meeting would work.
Answer: tabling until next meeting would work.
And that’s what they did.

They vote Tuesday 5:30 PM.
Monday morning at the Work Session,
after some resistance from a Commissioner, surprisingly Chairman Bill Slaughter
argued for
paying the $40,000 to match Valdosta on the LiDAR flood maps
to prevent loss of life and property damage.
He even said “folks that live in our cities are Lowndes County Citizens as well.”

Due to requests from Greenlaw in Atlanta and Save Our Suwannee in Florida,
WWALS Watershed Coalition asked the City of Valdosta for a presentation
on their wastewater situation.
Valdosta presented less than two weeks later, and brought their entire
hierarchy related to this issue, from the mayor on down.
Plus Lowndes County, which isn’t even responsible for Valdosta’s wastewater,
was represented by their Chairman and a Commissioner.
Not all questions could be answered that quickly, but many were.